There are a couple of web sites that I have been unable to connect to for over a week. I know these sites are working fine as I can access them from work and not home (and others can access them with no problem). I have tried changing my browser's security settings, I've tried other computers in my house, I've tried switching between Netscape and IE, i've changed cookie settings, i've e-mailed my ISP, i've disconnected my router and went directly into my cable modem...nothing works. I;ve tried software such as Visual Route, but I'm not sure what to make of the results. It says that IP packets are being lost at some stage after they are routed from my ISP. Any ideas what might be blocking these sites?? Examples of sites I can't reach are www.neopets.com, www.boyles.com....

one other thing I should say about the Visual route report. It says that connections to HTTP port 80 are not working.

Hmmmm, Well, the last thing you mentioned could well be the key to your problems. Port 80 is the port that HTTP packets are delivered to! You certainly need to have Port 80 open for the internet. What is strange is that you are able to visit other pages if port 80 is reportedly 'not working'. Have you got a firewall on your computer that may be blocking important ports like HTTP 80? That's the only thing that springs to mind, Hope it helps, Good Luck, Shaun

I had a similar problem couple of weeks ago where I could not access www.ebay.com or .ca, but my friends can... I kept playing with the settings but nothing worked. All the sudden, after a week or so they were running as if nothing happened. I do not know how and why, but maybe because I played around with my firewall settings... I hope this is helpful...

Thanks for you comments. I was actually just able to connect to these sites by diconnecting my Linksys router and plugging directly into the cable modem. Any ideas about how I need to configure my router to allow access to these sites? thanks

Hi, Well, you need to access the router settings and ensure that HTTP 80 packets are being routed to your PC. Is your computer the only PC on the router? Does your router have port forwarding? If so - set your router to forward Port 80 requests through to your local IP Address. To find your local ip address: Run > start > command then type ipconfig at the prompt. This will give you your IP Address. The router should, if setup correctly, automatically forward all requests to Port 80 but this way will work too. Anybody else got any other ideas? Good Luck, Shaun